Three members of the Itasca Ski Club have been named to the 2009 USSA-Central Division Junior Olympic team for ski jumping and Nordic-combined.
Tyler Hutchins, 15, Andre Denney, 13, and Somer Schrock, 12, will travel next week to Anchorage, Alaska, to compete in the Junior Olympics, an annual nationwide competition for ski jumpers ages 15 and younger. In addition to jumping, the three will compete in the Nordic-combined events, which combine ski jumping and cross-country skiing scores. They will compete in both individual and team events.
This is the fourth time Hutchins and Denney have made the Junior Olympic team; it is Schrock's first. Hutchins is in ninth grade at Grand Rapids High School. Denney is in eighth grade at Robert J. Elkington Middle School. Schrock is in sixth grade at St. Joseph's Elementary School.
The three train on the 70-meter ski jump at the Mt. Itasca Winter Sports Center in Coleraine. Their coach is Jon Denney, who ski jumped in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo.
